Scottish Government's Programme

Part of the debate – in the Scottish Parliament at 4:04 pm on 5 September 2007.

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Photo of Roseanna Cunningham Roseanna Cunningham Scottish National Party 4:04, 5 September 2007

Well, that has been a right glass-half-empty response from the Opposition. I do not know whether it seriously imagined that somehow everything was going to be delivered by this SNP Government overnight. Not even we believe that we are that strong and powerful. I remind all members that a parliamentary session lasts four years. We have done more in a few months than the previous Administration did in almost a decade.

I listened with some astonishment to Cathy Jamieson listing the many problems that she says we are not tackling. I am astonished that her face was not bright red and her neck shiny bright brass—the implication of what she said was that the problems were of her Government's making and she was asking us to clean up its mess. We are going to do our best to clean up as much of that mess as we can. I welcome the new Government's programme enormously.

Many pieces of legislation were passed over the past eight years. Most of it could be criticised, because it was all enabling legislation. Personally, I say thank you very much—the previous Government has enabled us to govern without having constantly to pass more legislation. If members of the previous Administration do not like that, they need to remember that that is what they chose to do.